Here is my mom in her 20's. She was a beauty pageant queen and a magazine cover girl in the Philippines. I was totally tripped out looking at these pictures of her because:
1. Mom never even told me about her beauty girl days until I her oldest child was in my 30's.
2. In my head, she's always been, "mom." I have only seen her as the "mom" which to me is pretty much church going June Clever with a pinch of Martha, so imagine the shock seeing mom as Luz, "the hottie." It was concurrently cool and dimension altering.
As kids, even when we get older, we tend to get only one image of our parents stuck in our head and we forget that at one point they too were scared, unsure, fancy free, hope filled kids like ourselves.
A few benefits of seeing pictures of your folks in their 20's:
- You can see them in their youth, a moment we all at some level want to hold onto. You just might be amazed how much your same sex parent might look just like you. My youngest brother and dad could have been twins at the same age.
- It can help you start seeing your parents as people, not "parents." Sometimes we can put our folks on a pedestal expecting them to be virtually perfect humans because the label "parent" can come with high expectations. Our parents are people too who make mistakes, grow and learn, and require forgiveness and acceptance like anyone else.
- It's a great opener for your parents to tell you a story about themselves when they were in their 20's which helps you to learn more about them and perhaps bring you closer together.
